FTC warning people over fraudsters pretending to be customer service representatives

An 81-year-old Alpharetta woman avoided financial disaster after spending hours on the phone with criminals she thought were Amazon customer support employees.

Channel 2 consumer adviser Clark Howard said this scam is so common, that the Federal Trade Commission posted a warning about it.

“Criminals are constantly updating their tactics to get in your wallet,” Howard said.

Kathie Lunsford told Channel 2 Action News that she called a number she found on Google for Amazon Prime customer support after a movie she rented wouldn’t play.

“There was a number on there somewhere that said you could call and leave your name and they would call you back,” Lunsford said.

She said the woman on the other end of the phone told her she had multiple fraudulent accounts in her name.

“She said this is the type of thing we have to report to the Federal Trade Commission,” Lunsford said.

She was transferred to a man who told her he worked for the FTC and asked for her Social Security number.

The fraudster sent pictures of bank accounts and an ID badge to prove he was legit.

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“He says, ‘This sounds like an inside job. It sounds like these people are working through the banks,’” Lunsford said.

After hours on the phone, she hung up and realized she’d made a mistake.

“I just gave them more information than I should have. And when I hung up three hours later and realized what I had done, I realized I had to do something about it,” Lunsford said.

She called Team Clark’s Consumer Action Center and spoke with Lori Silverman who told her to hang up and put fraud alerts on her financial accounts.

Silverman said taking immediate action is crucial after you have been scammed.

“That’s actually what saved her from having her entire savings bank account wiped out,” Silverman said.

Silverman said Googling numbers for Amazon, or any company can be dangerous.

“Especially companies like Amazon or government agencies, there’s a lot of fraudulent numbers out there,” Silverman said.

In addition to fraud alerts, Lunsford froze her credit and continues to monitor her credit report.

“I am very much aware of scams and people getting scammed. And I know people who have gotten scammed. But you never think about how it’s going to happen to you,” Lunsford said.

Howard says you should never google a phone number.

“Overwhelmingly it’s going to be fake,” Howard said.

Any time somebody threatens you, claims they are with law enforcement or pressures you to do something right away, Howard says to hang up the phone.

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